Rubio: Republicans must make immigration priority

Jan. 27, 2012 03:02 PMAssociated Press

DORAL, Florida — Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Friday laid out his arguments for broad immigration reform and urged those in his party to jettison the harsh rhetoric, challenging both conservatives and those on the left to make the issue a priority.

The freshman lawmaker — who is on both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich’s shortlist of vice presidential candidates — has given sweeping speeches on U.S. foreign policy and domestic policy. But Friday marked his first major speech directly on immigration. Rubio challenged Republicans to address the legal status of young illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children and want to go to college or join the military.

“There is broad bipartisan support for the notion that we should figure out a way to accommodate them,” Rubio said to a crowd of more than 600 at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, just west of Miami. “I hope Republicans and conservatives take the lead in solving this.”

Rubio added any such proposal must “not encourage illegal immigration in the future,” and said current proposals go too far. Still, his speech at the Hispanic Leadership Network appeared to be a major step toward reaching those who oppose anything beyond tightening the nation’s borders.

The speech comes days ahead of the Florida Republican primary. Latinos, who make up about 11 percent of Republican voters, are likely to play a significant role. Beyond Florida, Rubio is increasingly viewed by the Republicans as essential to capturing Hispanic votes in the November presidential election.

Rubio’s speech also seemed to be a response to those on the left seeking to paint Rubio as a traitor to Hispanics and immigrants.

Before his talk, the California-based nonprofit Presente and the Texas-based Somos Republicanos — “We are Republicans” — made their presence known. The groups, along with local labor and immigrant groups, flew a banner reading “Hey Marco, No somos Rubios” over the hotel. The message was a play on Rubio’s last name, which means “blond” in Spanish. Presente co-founder Roberto Lovato said it was a reference to the rising Republican star’s association with the mostly white tea party, which tends to oppose any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The dark-haired Rubio referenced the plane, jokingly noting that he wasn’t blond, either.

But he also added: “On the right and among conservatives, we must admit there are those among us who have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable and we must admit, myself included, that sometimes we’ve been to slow to condemn that language for what it is.”

And he called out those on the left for trying to win Hispanic votes by creating “unrealistic and unreasonable expectation for Latinos across the country.”

Rubio stopped short of calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

“How about everybody else? I don’t have a magic answer for you,” he said. “There is not political support for the notion of granting 11 million people citizenship or a path to citizenship. It’s just not there. On the other side you can’t deport 11 million people.”

Rubio reiterated earlier statements that the issue of immigration is personal to him. He noted a report last fall that his parents were economic immigrants who came to the U.S. several years before the Cuban revolution, not exiles who fled Fidel Castro. They quickly came to oppose Castro and identified with the exile community.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” he said, because it made him go back and learn about his parents and grandparents and their determination to leave a better future for their children.

“You find it in the faces of the men outside of Home Depot … the women who work long and hard hours sometimes without documents,” he said.

Speaking to a potential audience far beyond the mostly Hispanic crowd of 600, he added: “I ask you what if you were them? Let me tell you—if I was there, there are very few things I would not do. There is no fence high enough; there is no ocean wide enough that most of us would not cross to provide for them what they do not have.”

That kind of language is likely to appeal to independent Hispanic voters and even some Democrats in swing states like Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, who could help Republicans in a tight race against President Barack Obama.

Former Minnesota U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, co-founder of the center-right Hispanic Leadership Network, said he hoped the presidential candidates and every Republican running for office would sit down and watch Rubio’s speech.

“He was able to articulate a vision of an issue that is complex but that we have to deal with,” Coleman said.

Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, another Cuban-American from Florida, also took the lead on immigration within the party “and he got a little battered,” Coleman said.

But he said he believes Rubio, who rode the tails of the tea party to the U.S. Senate in 2010, may have a broad enough base to be more effective.

“He has commitment and support within the most active and vocal element of our party, like the tea party,” he said.

Still, he likely didn’t go far enough to satisfy several young immigrant activists who briefly interrupted him as he began his speech. They demanded to know why he has refused to support existing proposals for legalizing youth in the country illegally through the so-called Dream Act.

And in a sign of how much work Rubio may have cut out for him, the students were quickly booed by the crowd and ushered out by hotel security, despite Rubio’s own pleas.

“I want them to stay,” he shouted out. “They have the bravery and courage to raise their voices and a) I thank god I am in a country where they can do that. But b) I want them to hear what they have to say.”